Tuesday, November 15, 2016

8:22 AM

Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, has written his GOP colleagues formally indicating his plans to run for re-election as speaker, saying he has heard from them "it is time to go big."

Ryan, who won the post a little more than a year ago after John Boehner stepped down, asked colleagues to think back to that period. He wrote they were divided as a conference. But instead of "continuing to drift," Republicans unified, went on offense and opened up lines of communication as they "developed a positive, specific policy agenda, and took it to the country."

He wrote that agenda will allow Republicans to hit the ground running with President-elect Trump.

"If we go for it -- if we go big and go bold -- we can make America so great that it offers our children even more than it offers us," Ryan wrote.

The House Republican Conference is set to meet today for leadership elections. There will then be a floor vote in January, when Ryan would have to garner a majority of members present to retain the gavel.